Administration of Occupational Safety and Health

Health and safety plan

In Short

All employers are responsible for ensuring that a workplace health and safety plan is in place, regardless of the size of the business. The plan includes risk assessment and a health protection and risk prevention plan.
The plan serves as the foundation for effective occupational health and safety practices. Its purpose is to promote the safety and well-being of employees.
The plan must be written. Its presentation should be clear and accessible to both management and employees.
The plan provides a good overview of hazards in the workplace and how they have been prevented or mitigated through preventive measures. When improvements are needed in the workplace, they should be scheduled and included in the plan.
The plan is a living document that must be reviewed regularly and whenever circumstances change. The effectiveness of the measures taken must also be evaluated.
The employer must ensure that the plan is implemented in daily operations so that occupational safety and health become an integral part of the business. This is the key to promoting employee safety and well-being in the workplace.

Safety and well-being at work is a daily task

Every day, we manage risks in our personal lives to prevent accidents and mishaps. We place knives facing down in the dishwasher and switch to winter tires when the season changes.
The same mindset should apply in the workplace—as shown in the video.

The Administration of Occupational Health and Safety encourages both managers and employees to start a conversation about safety and well-being at work, no matter the nature of the job.
Let’s go over the risks, write them down, and decide together how we’re going to prevent them.

Roles and Responsibilities

The employer is responsible for ensuring that the plan is created and properly followed. Employees must be prepared to participate in its development if requested. It is recommended that the creation and implementation of the plan be a collaborative effort between employers, managers, and employees.

Workplaces need to foster a culture that emphasizes the well-being and safety of employees, with occupational health and safety being an integral part of daily operations. This requires the involvement of everyone at the workplace, with managers leading by example.

When conducting a risk assessment, the employer must identify the risks in the workplace. It is recommended to consult with employees, as they know their jobs well and can provide valuable suggestions for reducing risk.

Employees are obligated to inform the employer, the safety officer, or the safety representative if they notice anything at the workplace that may pose a threat to safety or health. They are also responsible for minimizing risk in their work environment during daily tasks.

If the preparation of the workplace health and safety plan requires expertise that the employer, managers, or employees do not possess, the employer must seek assistance from (only avilable in icelandic).

Even if the employer uses the services of an approved provider, they remain responsible for ensuring that the plan is prepared and implemented.

Successful health and safety practices are based on collaboration between employers, managers, and employees in maintaining and improving safety and well-being in the workplace. The purpose is to identify risk in the work environment and respond to them in a way that prevents workplace accidents, incidents, and employee discomfort or distress.

The goals of occupational health and safety include:

Protecting employees from any kind of harm that may arise from their work or working conditions.
Organizing work in a way that tasks are suitable for the individual.
Increasing safety and thus reducing the risk of accidents and health issues.
Promoting both the mental and physical well-being of employees.

Clear vision and focus on the safety and well-being of employees

The same principles that apply to achieving success in business and operations also apply to occupational health and safety. Employers must have a clear vision of the kind of workplace they want to offer their employees and communicate that vision clearly across the organization. Clear goals and measurable indicators should be set to realize that vision.

There must also be motivation and space for continuous improvement, as workplaces are constantly evolving, bringing with them new and changing demands.

The Act on Working Environment, Health, and Safety in the Workplace stipulates cooperation between employers, managers, and staff to promote well-being and safety at work, thereby giving employees the opportunity to have an impact. This cooperation can relate to the work itself, the physical working environment, and workplace culture. It may also include setting goals and metrics to monitor progress in this area.

In addition, cooperation should include follow-up on measures already implemented, to ensure they are still appropriate and effective.

Employees should be well informed about:

Who is involved in organizing safety efforts at the workplace.
How accidents and incidents are handled.
Where to turn if they feel their safety is at risk.
How preventive measures are implemented.

All workplaces need to manage the risks in their environment. This includes identifying risks that can cause harm or damage, assessing their severity, and evaluating the likelihood that they may result in health harm to employees. Then, preventative measures must be defined and implemented to either eliminate or reduce the risks as much as possible, if they cannot be entirely prevented.

Both visible and invisible risks in the workplace need to be identified and assessed.

Visible risks might include unguarded machinery, hazardous chemical mixtures, or poor working conditions.
Invisible risks could be stress, time pressure, difficult communication, and unclear organization. Often, risks are hidden within the workplace culture, where they are not easily seen.

Everyone must have the opportunity to take responsibility to ensure a good and healthy working environment. The employer and managers of the workplace must ensure that appropriate corrective actions are taken where necessary. Furthermore, it is important for them to be aware of the safety culture that exists in the workplace and the impact they have on it.

The safety culture of a workplace often reflects the attitudes, opinions, and experiences of the employees, and sometimes it does not align with the company's policy or established standards, such as how employees speak to or about each other. Sometimes, the change must start with changing attitudes that can lead to changes in behavior, which, in turn, can transform the culture. In this regard, it is also crucial to ensure the psychological safety of employees so that they feel comfortable coming forward and reporting incidents where things are not in order.

It is beneficial to be aware that various recognized management methods can be used in shaping the strategy the workplace wants to adopt in health and safety matters. This also applies to the definition of goals and metrics to evaluate whether the preventive actions that have been implemented are producing satisfactory results.

Employees also need to be ready to actively participate in establishing a structured health and safety program in the workplace, ensuring their perspectives become part of the workplace culture and thus enhancing their safety awareness. This includes participating in the risk assessment work and adhering to the rules set to prevent risks, as well as taking responsibility for their own well-being at work.

Safety representatives, safety guards and members of safety committees

The organization of occupational safety efforts depends on the size of the workplace. The Act on Working Environment, Health and Safety in the Workplace, and the Regulation on the Organization and Implementation of Occupational Safety Work, make varying demands on workplaces based on the number of employees per year.

When the number of employees fluctuates, the average number from the previous year is used as a reference, but changes in the scale of operations are also taken into account.

At workplaces with fewer than ten employees, the employer must promote good working conditions and safety in close cooperation with their employees. To ensure good conditions at the workplace, it can be good practice to assign individual employees the role of actively participating in the workplace’s safety efforts, either by appointing a specific safety officer or electing a safety representative, or by other means.

In workplaces with 10 to 49 employees, the staff must elect one representative from among themselves to serve as a safety representative, and the employer must appoint one representative as a safety officer (if they cannot perform the role themselves).

The employer’s representative acting as a safety officer must have clear authority to make decisions and implement actions related to occupational safety.

When there are 50 employees or more, a special safety committee must be established. The employees elect at least two representatives, and the employer appoints at least two safety officers to the committee.

If circumstances are such that the safety committee may not have sufficient oversight over all employees (e.g., in cases where there are multiple locations or independent operational units), it is recommended that more than one safety committee be established. Alternatively, employees at each location or unit can elect a safety representative, and the employer can appoint a safety officer at each site.

Option to involve more people

These are minimum requirements set forth by the Act on Working Environment, Health and Safety, but workplaces are free to involve more employees in their internal occupational safety work.

The roles of safety representatives, safety officers, and safety committees include contributing to the preparation of a health and safety plan and promoting effective occupational safety efforts.

It is important to ensure access for safety representatives, safety officers, and committee members to training on occupational safety—particularly on the specific risks most relevant to their workplace. Additionally, employers must ensure that those chosen for these roles are given adequate time to perform their duties properly.

Election of safety representatives and appointment of safety officers

Employees elect safety representatives; all employees except managers are eligible for election.
All employees, regardless of employment type, duration, or percentage of full-time work, have the right to vote, except for managers.
The term of office for safety representatives is generally two years.
Union representatives or representatives of relevant trade unions are responsible for organizing and conducting the election of safety representatives.
Elections can take place through written ballots or during staff meetings. Employee meetings for this purpose must be announced at least two days in advance, and all employees must be given the opportunity to participate.

You must notify the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health about the election of a safety representative and the appointment of a safety officer or the establishment of a safety committee.

Access to the Plan

The plan must be introduced to all employees and should always be accessible to both management and employees. It is recommended that workplaces assess whether it needs to be made available in languages other than Icelandic to ensure that everyone at the workplace can understand it. The Administration of Occupational Safety and Health (AOSH) may request to see the plan during site visits or through digital communication.

How is the plan created?

First, the risks in the work environment need to be identified and assessed, and a written risk assessment must be prepared outlining the specific risks present at the workplace. Employers must take a comprehensive view of all aspects of their operations and work environment. It is helpful to use the five key elements of occupational health and safety, along with specific risks where applicable. It is recommended that the employer consult with employees, as they know their jobs well and can offer valuable suggestions on how to reduce the risks. Next, a time-bound health protection and risk prevention plan should be created — a written document outlining how to prevent or, if not possible, minimize the identified risks as much as possible.

The Process of Creating a Health and Safety Plan

Below is an overview diagram of the process that supports employers in creating a health and safety plan for their workplace. It helps to structure the two main components of the plan — the risk assessment and the health protection and risk prevention plan — in accordance with the regulation on the organization and implementation of occupational health and safety at workplaces (only avilable in Icelandic)

Download a larger image.

The Administration of Occupational Safety and Health encourages employers to familiarize themselves with the process that supports the development of a health and safety plan.

Educational video on creating a safety and health plan

This video simply explains what a health and safety plan is and what is involved in creating one.

Review of the Plan

The plan must be reviewed regularly in cooperation between the employer, management, and employees. For example, when incidents, accidents, near-misses, or changes in working conditions occur. It is then necessary to assess whether the preventive measures that have been implemented are still effective in mitigating the risks they are intended to address. It’s important to keep in mind that preventive actions may evolve or become outdated over time.

Additional material

Let's work together: Everyone home safe

Every day, we manage risks in our personal lives to prevent accidents and mishaps. We place knives facing down in the dishwasher and switch to winter tires when the season changes. The same mindset should apply in the workplace—as shown in the video above.

Service provider

Administration of Occupational Safety and Health

Related material

Risk assessment in the workplace

Health protection and risk prevention plan